Jamie ran 3 1/2 miles on Monday. she ran half as far on Tuesday as she did on Monday. how far did Jamie run in all on Monday and Tuesday

Question

Hi, i am doing a packet and i just finished 6th grade but i am stuck on a word problem that could either be adding fractions & mixed numbers, subtracting fractions & mixed numbers, multiplying fractions & mixed numbers, or dividing fractions & mixed numbers but i think is adding fractions & mixed numbers.

Answer 1

Hi, Natalie. 

Ok, so this problem requires adding and multiplying fractions and mixed numbers.

So Jamie ran 3 1/2 miles on Monday and half that distance on Tuesday. We need to know how far she ran "in all" which are key words for "addition".

We need to add 3 1/2 + (1/2)(3 1/2)

It's probably easiest to do this by converting to an improper fraction.

So let's convert:

3 1/2 is the same as 7/2. now we can rewrite the problem:

7/2 + (1/2)(7/2) 

= 7/2 + 7/4 . Now we need a common denominator:

7/2 = 14/4

Now we have 14/4 + 7/4 = 21/4.  Now we should convert to a mixed number.

21/4 = 5 1/4

So Jamie ran 5 1/4 miles in all.